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Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam
Discover the rich history of slam poetry through the lens of the New York City scene that pioneered it
Author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz situates New York slam poetry in the history of oral tradition in poetry throughout history and around the world, with particular attention to the three major 20th century arts movements that helped set the stage for the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, and hip hop. Aptowicz explores the birth of slam at the Nuyorican Poets’ Café and the genre’s explosive growth as the media responded with events like Lollapalooza and MTV’s Unplugged. The book expands the canvas by examining the connections between academia and slammers, especially the poets of color, the youth slammers, and the burgeoning hip hop poetry scene. Interviews with key players like Chicago’s Marc Smith and San Francisco’s Gary Mex Glazner help tell this fascinating story from the inside.
Author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz situates New York slam poetry in the history of oral tradition in poetry throughout history and around the world, with particular attention to the three major 20th century arts movements that helped set the stage for the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, and hip hop. Aptowicz explores the birth of slam at the Nuyorican Poets’ Café and the genre’s explosive growth as the media responded with events like Lollapalooza and MTV’s Unplugged. The book expands the canvas by examining the connections between academia and slammers, especially the poets of color, the youth slammers, and the burgeoning hip hop poetry scene. Interviews with key players like Chicago’s Marc Smith and San Francisco’s Gary Mex Glazner help tell this fascinating story from the inside.
- GenresPoetryHistoryNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2007
6 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
20 books118 followersCristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is an American poet who was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.
She is the author of five books of poetry, including the recently released Everything is Everthing (Write Bloody Publishing), as well as the canonical slam history, Words in Your Face (Soft Skull Press), which U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins wrote “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.”
Founder of the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship venue, NYC-Urbana, Cristin has toured widely with her poetry, at venues as diverse as NYC’s Joe’s Pub, LA’s Largo Theatre and Australia’s Sydney Opera House. Cristin’s poetry books are published on Write Bloody Press, and available at all online & brick-and-order bookstores.
Her poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies, Rattle, Pank, Barrelhouse, MonkeyBicycle, decomP, Conduit and La Petite Zine (among others), as well as in anthologies such as Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Spoken Word, Learn Then Burn: Modern Poetry For the Classroom, Bowery Women and Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (among others).
She is the author of five books of poetry, including the recently released Everything is Everthing (Write Bloody Publishing), as well as the canonical slam history, Words in Your Face (Soft Skull Press), which U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins wrote “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.”
Founder of the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship venue, NYC-Urbana, Cristin has toured widely with her poetry, at venues as diverse as NYC’s Joe’s Pub, LA’s Largo Theatre and Australia’s Sydney Opera House. Cristin’s poetry books are published on Write Bloody Press, and available at all online & brick-and-order bookstores.
Her poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies, Rattle, Pank, Barrelhouse, MonkeyBicycle, decomP, Conduit and La Petite Zine (among others), as well as in anthologies such as Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Spoken Word, Learn Then Burn: Modern Poetry For the Classroom, Bowery Women and Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (among others).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 14, 2010
Would have gotten 5 stars if not for the RIDICULOUS amount of typos. Geez! Hire an editor folks.
August 5, 2016
Like a trip down memory lane - and I wasn't even there!
Words in Your Face is without a doubt an important collective history. An invaluable tool for me, as I am writing my masters thesis on a slam poet. This book reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. Also, so many new names to check out on YouTube! Mostly this is of course a curiosity for people who are into poetry slam already, but I don't see why someone with no clue as to what this is, couldn't enjoy it as well. I can only imagine slam poets from the 90s skimming the pages for references to themselves!
Words in Your Face is without a doubt an important collective history. An invaluable tool for me, as I am writing my masters thesis on a slam poet. This book reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. Also, so many new names to check out on YouTube! Mostly this is of course a curiosity for people who are into poetry slam already, but I don't see why someone with no clue as to what this is, couldn't enjoy it as well. I can only imagine slam poets from the 90s skimming the pages for references to themselves!
October 15, 2018
A one-sided slightly biased take on the scene. Yet, she never glamorizes her own experiences or team. I did learn a lot from this though.
September 13, 2021
Blistering walk along
December 18, 2011
This completely engaging and informative tome of New York poetry history cannot be exalted too highly. Pulling from a variety of sources, experiences and locations to give a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of poetry slams - and New York's key part in developing them - this book gives the perfect balance of lesson, gossip, epistle and documentary. With interviews and back story set down by Cristin Aptowicz - someone firmly placed in the heart of the movement - the book stands alone in its comprehensiveness and testimony to what makes Slam so powerful.
A wholly engaging read for even a cursory fan of poetry, and a must-read for any poet interested in developing their work, their scene or their career.
A wholly engaging read for even a cursory fan of poetry, and a must-read for any poet interested in developing their work, their scene or their career.
February 21, 2012
Such a great, insiders story on the development of the slam scene! The interviews are fantastic. A must read for first time slam poets, bystanders and everyone else. You will gain a whole new perspective on the interlocking of the slam scene and find out more about what it takes to make it! Has helped me visualize my goals as a poet much more realistically.
December 12, 2009
Easily one of the most, if not THE most, significant histories of poetry slam published to date, and an absolute must for anyone interested in the recent history of American Poetry.
June 28, 2014
Such an incredibly rich book, probably read about half of it out of sequence. So many of the major NYC slammers and slam influencers in this book. Bob Holman is worth a book by himself.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews